Mariam Nusrat, a Pakistani woman, has been named to the “Forbes Next 1000 List,” which honours start-ups and businesses with less than $10 million in revenue but limitless potential to inspire.
“An entrepreneur’s journey is not linear — it is full of twists and turns; defeat is a normal part of the process, but what distinguishes entrepreneurs on the Forbes Next 1000 List is their perseverance in the face of adversity,” Forbes said in a statement on Friday.
Mariam, the company’s founder, has a Master’s degree in economics from both LUMS and George Washington University in the United States, and she presently lives in Virginia.
Mariam’s inclusion into the Forbes Next 1000 List places her among business leaders who are reinventing what it means to start and run a company in the new normal.
Forbes has launched a first-of-its-kind programme to honour brave and inspiring entrepreneurs who are reinventing what it means to manage a business in today’s world. Mariam’s accomplishments were lauded by Forbes editors as well as a panel of prominent business minds and entrepreneurs.
Mariam’s illustrious entrepreneurial career began in 2015, when she founded GRID – Gaming Revolution for Inspiring Development, a not-for-profit arm of GRID – Gaming Revolution for Inspiring Development.
Mariam has been heading a team of Pakistani game developers and designers to produce low-cost mobile games that encourage good behaviour modification for the past six years. On issues such as reproductive health, climate change, health pandemics, animal welfare, STEM learning, and structural racism, the team built eight portfolio games in four languages.
Mariam has received a number of honours for her efforts, including the Clinton Global Initiative University Alum Award (given onstage by President Bill Clinton), the DC Inno 50 on Fire Award, the Andrew Rice Award, the GWU Best Social Venture Prize, and the UN PeaceApp Prize.
GRID has garnered a lot of press since its introduction, including interviews on ABC News and WUSA9, as well as coverage in Huffington Post, Global Voices, Washington Business Journal, Today, Yahoo News, and other mainstream international news outlets.
Mariam has also spoken about GRID at a number of high-level events, including two sessions at the CGIU Meetings led by former US President Bill Clinton and two Tedx events.
On their platform Breshna, the company is currently focusing on democratising content creation through video games. People are empowered to speak in an engaging way using Breshna. Breshna may be used by anybody to make interesting and interactive video games to engage their audience, whether it’s a teacher creating a history quiz, a non-profit leader creating an animal sympathy brochure, or a startup founder creating a pitch deck. “The team has already received $75,000 from 11 Tribes VC in a pre-seed round and will launch with a Game Jam on July 16th.”
The team expects to scale to 2 million users and 200,000 paying clients by 2024, with an ARR of $105 million, thanks to their pre-launch traction and positioning as industry disruptors in the purposeful gaming sector.
Mariam works as an Education Specialist at the World Bank when she isn’t unleashing the potential of video games for social change.
Source: tribune.com
